It is August 1913 and English actor Lysander Rief has traveled to Vienna to seek treatment for his "condition". Lysander is quite nervous and taken aback when he arrives to Dr. Bensimon's office for his appointment and is greeted by a harried Ms. Hettie Bull. Ms. Bull is frantic that she must get in to see the doctor and begs Lysander to let her jump ahead of him. Lysander being the ever gentleman of course allows this. Once Lysander meets Dr. Bensimon and is sitting in the office the reality of it weighs on him. Being trained by Dr. Sigmund Freud, Dr. Bensimon explains the techniques used on treating his patients and they begin.
Lysander takes him time revealing his "condition" and seems unnerved while doing so. We learn that he is engaged to be married to a beautiful actress but before he can marry her he needs to be cured. As it turns out that Lysander's condition is one of a sexual nature. Lysander is able to become aroused but unable to finish the deed. Dr. Bensimon asks that Lysander get a journal and keep track of all his thoughts. While at the shop purchasing the journal Lysander bumps into Ms. Bull who invites him to a gathering. Lysander is put off by her but finds that he cannot say no.
Lysander meets Ms. Bull and her common law husband at the event and Ms. Bull asks Lysander to meet her at her workshop. Lysander feels that his treatment is going well and he decides no harm can be had by meeting her. Once at Ms. Hettie Bull's workshop she asks him to model for her and he agrees, then she asks that he do so nude and that as they say was that. Hettie seduces Lysander and once swept up in passion Lysander discovers Dr. Bensimon has cured him and for once Lysander "finishes".
WAITING FOR SUNRISE is Lysander Rief's story and his life during the First World War. Lysander's brief but fervent affair with Hettie is the catalyst in a series of unfortunate events. Once Lysander is back in London he had hoped things would return to their normal and quiet state. Unfortunately with the war around him the events from Vienna catch up with him and his is put on a tumultuous journey as a spy for his country.
WAITING FOR SUNRISE is brilliantly written by William Boyd who has a knack for story-telling. I found myself riveted to the page wondering what could possibly happen to poor Lysander next!
Vienna, 1913. Lysander Rief, a young English actor in town
seeking psychotherapy for a troubling ailment of a sexual
nature, becomes caught up in a feverish affair with a
beautiful, enigmatic woman. When she goes to the police to
press charges of rape, however, he is stunned, and his few
months of passion come to an abrupt end. Only a carefully
plotted escapeβwith the help of two mysterious British
diplomatsβsaves him from trial.
But the frenzied getaway sets off a chain of events that
steadily dismantles Lysander's life as he knows it. He
returns to a London on the cusp of war, hoping to win back
his onetime fiancΓe and banish from memory his traumatic
ordeals abroad, but Vienna haunts him at every turn. The men
who helped coordinate his escape recruit him to carry out
the brutal murder of a complete stranger. His lover from
Vienna shows up nonchalantly at a party, ready to resume
their liaison. Unable to live an ordinary existence, he is
plunged into the dangerous theater of wartime intelligenceβa
world of sex, scandal, and spies, where lines of truth and
deception blur with every waking day. Lysander must now
discover the key to a secret code that is threatening
Britain's safety, and use all his skills to keep this murky
world of suspicion and betrayal from invading every corner
of his life.
Moving from Vienna to London's West End, from the
battlefields of France to hotel rooms in Geneva, Waiting for
Sunrise is a mesmerizing journey into the human psyche, a
beautifully observed portrait of wartime Europe, a
plot-twisting thriller, and a literary tour de force.
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